BLM to pursue effort to end dispute with rancher

BUNKERVILLE (KSNV MyNews3.com) — Heated protests and confrontations died down this weekend after the Bureau of Land Management decided to stop a cattle roundup.

The Bundy family says this is a victory over the government.

Clark County fair goers in Logandale had the controversy on their minds. The general feeling there is a sense of relief.

Rancher Cliven Bundy has battled the federal government over hundreds of cattle; the government claimed it was time to collect grazing fees it was owed.

Lyle Jones, a rancher in Logandale, says like the Bundy family he had a run-in with the Bureau of Land Management in the past.

"I think that was a good move by the BLM,” Jones said. “What's going to keep them from coming back is my worry. What is going to happen next.”

Some fair goers like Soren Johnson feel the battle between the BLM and Bundys is not over. Johnson says the feds made the right decision in halting the cattle roundup and returning the captured livestock to the Bundys.

"I feel that is fair,” Johnson said. “I think that they been doing farming out here and use of land for so many years not fair for them. All of a sudden now they can't use it."

Others out at the fair didn’t feel the same. Las Vegan Aaron Hanna believes the BLM had a right to finish the job they were directed to do.

"It just seems like a crazy reaction,” Hanna said. “A bunch of people wanting to get their opinions in. The BLM has a job to do, and a lot of people got in the way."Bureau of Land Management spokesman Craig Leff said Sunday that the agency would continue to try to resolve the matter involving rancher Cliven Bundy "administratively and judicially."

He declined to comment on possible options.

On Saturday, the bureau released about 400 head of cattle it had seized from Bundy back onto the range only hours after announcing a premature halt to the court-authorized roundup due to safety concerns.

The cattle were freed after hundreds of states' rights protesters, some of them armed, showed up at corrals outside Mesquite to demand the animals' release.